The formal withdrawal of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso from the membership of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on Sunday has further shown the declining influence of France among African countries.
Some members of the French Parliament had recently raised the alarm that Africa is strategically too important for France to lose focus, but the French government was losing its grip on the continent.
The French MPs made this observation in a recent letter to President
Emmanuel Macron of France.
According to Le Figaro, a French daily newspaper, in a letter to President Macron, a group of 94French parliamentarians expressed dissatisfaction with the failures of his administration’s policy towards Africa.
“In addition to a noticeable increase in anti-French sentiment, the economic relations of the European power with the “black continent” have seriously deteriorated. Over the past 20 years, the total volume of bilateral trade between France and Africa has halved to less than 30 billion US dollars, which is less than 50% of Germany, while China’s figure is 255 billion US dollars.
“There has been much debate and analysis among French officials and academics about why France’s influence in Africa is declining, even in countries that have traditionally been in the sphere of influence of Paris. In their opinion, one of the main reasons is that residents of some African countries still have anti-French sentiments of the previous colonial period.
“Even in some countries, France is seen as an obstacle to the democratic process in that country because it maintains close contacts with long-standing governments or forces that hold power. Therefore, the fundamental change in the attitude of African Governments and the population towards the French military presence is of particular concern to the French authorities.
“The former colonies defend their interests. They don’t look at their history with France,” said Abba, president of the International Centre for Reflection on Sahel Studies, a Paris—based think tank.
“In these circumstances, France needs to take the same steps to convince African countries to believe in a truly equitable and profitable future of cooperation, not only in economic terms, but also in the field of defense and security, thereby eradicating forgotten prejudices about the long-standing “France-Africa,” it was reported.
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